Shoe-sewing machine



A. EPPLER.

SHOE SEWING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.22, 1916.

1,339, 45 Patented May 11,1920.

3 SHEETSSHEET I.

l'hvenl'or:

M was: W

A. EPPLER.

SHOE SEWING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR-22,1916.

1 ,339,645, Patented May 11, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

[1410011511] ldfitl wssr- A. EPPLER.

SHOE SEWING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 22, 1916.

1 39,645, Patented May 11, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AlNDREW EPPIQER, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS,TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A COR-PORAT'ION OF NEW JERSEY.

SHOE-SEWING MACHINE.

Specification 0'! Letters Patent.

Patented May 11, 1920;

Application filed April 22, 1916. Serial No. 92,854.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDRE-W ErPL-nn, a citizen of the United States,residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of.

The present invention relates to shoe sewing machines, and moreparticularly to curved needle sewing machines adapted for stitching awelt to a stitch down shoe.

An object of the present invention is to provide a sewing machine bywhich a welt may be attached in an inverted position in the angle formedby the out turned flange of the upper of a stitch down shoe so that thewelt may be folded down upon the outturned flange to cover the weltattaching seam. I

In accordance with this object one feature of the invention contemplatesthe provision, in a shoe sewing machine provided with a presser foot anda work support adapted to clamp the projecting edge of a shoe sole between them, of a welt guide adapted to hold an inverted welt during thesewing operation in position to be subsequently folded away from theshoe over the attaching seam and upon the projecting sole edge. In thepreferred embodiment of this feature of the invention the welt guide hasangularly arranged guiding faces to fold the welt into an angular shapeand the welt guide is arranged to place the apex of the angle formed bythe welt approximately in the line of the seam formed by the machine. I

The machine hereinafter specifically described as embodying thepreferred form of the present invention is provided with a presser footwhich reciprocates in the line of feed with the awl during the feedingmovement of the shoe. The welt guide is formed in the presser foot andon the return stroke of the presser foot the welt is pulled through theguide. The presser foot is fixed against vertical movement and the workis intermittently clamped against it by a vertically movable worksupport. During the return stroke of the presser foot the needle is inthe work and in order to relieve the straln whloh would otherwise beplaced 'upon the needle and tend to bend it out of alinement, themachine is provided with means for depressing the work support durmg thereturn movement of the presser foot. This machine, in addition to thefeature of invention above referred to, also embodies certain novelfeatures of construction and operation hereinafter described andclaimed,

. the advantages of which will be obvious to those skilled in the art.The various features of the invention are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a View in front elevation ofa shoe sewing machine embodying the preferred form of the invention;Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation with parts broken away, of themachine shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a sectional plan View showing thework support locking devices; Fig. 4 is a detail view in side elevationshowing the feedslide and, presser foot adjusting mechanism; Fig. 5 is adetail .view in vertical section showing the releasing lever forreleasing the pawls from the work support locking device; and Fig. 6 isa vertical section of a stitch down shoe illustrating the manner inwhich a welt is attached to the shoe by the sewing machine illustratedin the other figures.

The sewing machine illustrated in the drawings is a curved hooked needlewax thread shoe sewing machine having substantially the sameconstruction and operation of parts as the machine illustrated anddescribed in the patent to Eppler, N0.

1,030,880, patented July 2, 1912. This maotally mounted upon a stud 30in a stationary part of the machine frame and carrying at its lower enda cam roll 32 which engages a slot 34 in the face of a cam 36. The lever28 is slotted at 38 to receive a pivot pin 40 in a block 42 which isadjustably connected with the slide 24 by means of slots 44 and bolts46. The resser foot 20 is mounted upon a slide b 00k 48 which works in adove-tailed slot 50 formed in the feed slide 24. The outer end of thepresser foot has a gage face 52, Fig. 2, which is adapted to engage theupper and determine the position of the seam in ,the work. This gageface may be adjusted toward and from the work to vary the position ofthe seam by means of a hand lever 54 which is fixed on a shaft 56mounted in the feed slide 24. The hand lever 54 is connected with thepresser foot slide block by means of a gear 58 mounted upon the shaft 56and a gear 60 interposed between the gear 58 and a rack 62 formed on theu per side of the slide 48. The upper end of the hand leveri54 isprovided with a boss 65 which moves between adjusting screws 66 todetermine the position of the seam. The adjusted position of the presserfoot is maintamed by means of a clamp 68 which is mounted upon the feedslide 24 and engages the slide block 48. With the construction outlinedabove the presser foot mounted on the machine frame by parallelreciprocates in the line of feed with the awl and is adjustabletransverse to the line of feed. The work engaging face of the presserfoot remains in the same plane and is normall stationary to act as anabutment against w ich the work is clamped during a' portion of thesewing operation.

The work support 22 is mountedupon a carrier 70, Figs. 1 and 2, which ispivotally links '72 and 74. The effective swinging radii of the links 72and 74.move the face tached to the machine frame and the front end ofthe plunger is pivoted to a block 84 which is slidably mounted in aguideway 86 formed on the rear end of the work support carrier link 74,Figs. 2 and 3. As the work support is forced up by the spring 76, it islocked in clamping position by four pawls 88 which engage a ratchetplate 90 mounted upon the plunger 78. The pawls 88 are mounted on themachine frame opposite the plate 90 and are spaced with relation to theteeth on the plate 90 so that the plunger will be locked in practicallyany position. Each pawl is independently held in engagement with theratchet plate by means of a series of leaf springs 92.

Periodically in the operation of the stitch forming mechanism theplunger 78 is unlocked to release the work support from a ries a roll106 which projects into a cam path in the face of the cam 94. Thereleasing lever 96 is connected by means of a spring 108 to the camlever, the spring acting to normally hold the lever 96 up, so as topermit the leaf springs 92 to force the pawls 88 into engagement withthe ratchet plate 90. When the cam lever 104 is not acting to releasethe pawls from the ratchet, it is held in a position by the cam 94 todraw the releasing lever 96 upward by means of the spring 108, and freethe pawls for engagement with the ratchet plate 90. The releasing lever96 has a handle 110 by which it may be manually operated to remove thepawls 88 from the ratchet and unlock the plunger at any time. When theplunger is unlocked, the work support is yieldingly held against thework by the spring 76 and may be drawn down away from the presser 'footby means of a treadle (-not' shown).

Thetreadle is connected by means of a rod 112 with a hook 114 formed onthe forward end of the carrier link 74. While the machine is stopped,the work support may be unlocked by'withdrawing the needle and awl fromthe work and the work support may be drawn down by the foot treadle toenter and remove the work. If at any time during the sewing operation,however, the operative desires to remove or adjust the work, the worksupport may be manually unlocked by the lever 96 and drawn down awayfrom the work by the foot treadle. The parts described above aresubstantially the same in their construction and mode of operation asthe parts described in the patent above referred to and reference ishereby made to said patent for a detailed description of these parts.

The stitch down shoe illustrated in Fig. 6 is made by attaching theout-turned flange 116 of an upper 118 to an insole 120 by a dry threadseam 122. After the upper has been attached to the insole it is placedupon a last 124. A-welt 128'is then secured in inverted position in theangle between the upper and. out-turned flange by means of a seam 130which passes through the insole 120, out-turned flange 116, and the welt128. After the Welt has been sewed to the insole and upper an outsole ispositioned upon the insole 120 and the portion of the welt which Iengages the upper is turned down upon the out-turned-fiange 116 to coverthe seam 130 and dry thread seam 122. The welt {is fastened upon the outturned flange by an outseam 132 which passes through the outsole,insole, out-turned flange, and Welt, as shown on the right side of theshoe in Fi 6.

To properly shape the Welt to t into the angle formed by the upper andout-turned flange a welt guide is formed in the presser foot of thesewing machine which has welt guiding slots to bend the welt into anangular shape and position it in an inverted position upon the upper sothat the'seam will be laid approximately in the angle formed in thewelt. To this end, welt guiding slots 134 and 136 are formed in thepresser foot 20 directly behind the gage face 52 of the welt. Theguiding slots 134 and 136'have an angular relation, and as the Weltpasses through them the portion of the welt passing through the slot 136is positioned upon the out-turned flange 116 and the portion passingthrough .the guiding face 134 is positioned against the upper 118. Thepresser foot positions the seam approximately in the angle formed by theupper and the outturned flange, and the welt is positioned so that theseam passes through the apex of the angle of the welt formed by theguiding slots. In this way the welt will be securely fastened in theangle formed by the upper and out-turned flan e, and when the welt isturned down upon t e out-turned flange the welt attaching seam will becovered. The

presser foot is adjustable transversely to the shoe in varying theposition of the seam, and since the welt guiding slot is formed in thepresser foot it will be adjusted with the presser foot and carry thewelt transversely to the shoe to position it in the line of the seam.

The presser foot and the Welt guide reciprocate in the line of feed ofthe work and during their return stroke the welt is drawn through theguiding slots in the presser foot. The needle is in the work to hold itduring the return stroke of the presser foot. In order to minimize thestrain on the needle, the work support is positively withdrawn from thepresser foot to remove the drag of the presser foot upon the work duringthe return stroke. To accomplish this, the cam 94 for releasing the worksupport locking devices is designed to release the work support duringthe return movement of the presser foot. At this time the work supportis positively drawn down from the presser foot against the tension ofthe spring 76 by means of a path cam 138. The cam 138 is connected withthe work support by means of a bellcrank 140 which is pivoted to astationary part of the machine frame. One arm of the bellcrank leverengages an adjusting screw 142 mounted in an arm 144 formed on thecarrier link 72, and the other arm of the bellcrank lever carries a roll146 which works in the path cam 138. With this construction the Worksupportis positively withdrawn to free the work during the returnmovement of the presser foot.

The preferred form of the invention having been thus described, what isclaimed 1s:-

1. A'shoe sewing machine, having in comblnation, a yieldingly mountedwork sup-;

port, a presser foot fixed against vertical movement cooperatingtherewith to clamp the projecting edge of a shoe sole, means forimparting feed and return movements to the presser foot during eachcycle of operations of the machine, and means acting during each cycleof operations of the machine for depressing the work support durifng thereturn movements of the presser oot.

2. A shoe sewing. machine, having in combination, stitch formingdevices,.a yieldingly mounted work support, a presser foot fixed againstvertical movement cooperating therewith to clamp the edge of a shoesole, means for imparting feed and return movements to the presser footduring each cycle of operations of the machine, means for locking andunlocking the work support during each cycle of operations of themachine, and means acting during each cycle of operations of the machinefor depressing edge of a shoe sole, and means for 1mpart-' ing feedmovements to the presser foot while the needle is out of the work andreturn movements while the needle is in the work.

4. A shoe sewing machine, having in combination, stitch forming devicesincluding a needle, a presser foot provided with a Welt guide, a worksupport cooperating with the presser foot to clamp the projecting edgeof a shoe sole, means for imparting feed movements to the presser footwhile the nee die is out of the work and return movements while theneedle is in the Work, and means for separating the work support andpresser foot during the return movements of the presser foot.

5. A shoe sewing machine, having in combination, stitch forming devices,a yieldingly mounted work support arranged to support the projectingedgeof a shoe sole, a presser foot cooperating therewith fixed againstvertical movement and, provided with a welt guide, means for impartingfeed and return movements to the presser foot during each cycle ofoperations of the machine, and means for depressing the work supportduring the returnmovements of the presser foot.

' 6. A shoe sewing machine,.having in combination, stitch formingdevices,- a presser foot provided with a welt guide, comprisingangularly disposed guiding slots to fold' the welt into an angular shapeand arranged to place the apex of the an 1e of the welt approximately inthe line 0 the seam, and a work support cooperating with the pressersole.

7. shoe sewing machine, having in comblnation, stitch forming devices, awork support arranged to support the projecting edge of a shoe s0le,anda presse-r foot cooperating therewith'provided with a welt guidearranged to hold an inverted welt during the sewing operation inposition to be subsequently folded away from the shoe over the attachingseam and upon the projecting sole edge.

- I ANDREW EPPLER.

foot to clamp the projecting edge of a shoe

